It's Beginning to look like Christmas!

 2 over 2 threads and with DMC & blending filament thread on the candies.

Gingerbread Street by Sue Hillis Designs

Fabric - Sparkly Pink (The one made for this chart- no other name was given, sorry)

Hi Bloggers! Hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day. My son Nicholas cooked the turkey, made the stuffing, and peeled the potatoes:) His turkey was fantastic - very moist. I'm so proud of him. He asked me if he could do most of the cooking....What a lovely mothers dream...Of course I said "Yes". We had Nannie come over for our dinner and we had her sit at the head of the table. We all missed my mom. I didn't go out shopping the day after. Had all the ad's from the newspaper, then turned on QVC on the TV. Yep that was fun:) They make shopping so easy. So I got to stitch this whole week end. Finished "Gingerbread Bread Street" House #2. I used my new Q snap frame and I did order some Q-Snap Huggies from Christine - her website  here. She is so nice, I look forward to getting them.

 My two Gingerbread Houses so far - 2 more to go.

 This stitched piece was done by my sister Nicole. She made this 2 years ago. I finally took it out and decided I would make it a pillow for her. This is completely her own design - Nope No chart what so ever. She drew it out then stitched it as she went. Just choosing colors what ever she felt like. Came out darn cute I think. I know it's 14ct Adia fabric because she cringes at 16ct and Lord forbid if she even sees 18ct -LOL. She's so funny. She just can't believe I stitch on 28ct and up:))))

So why did I wait so long to make something of this for her???  Just look at how close she stitched to the edge... I mean "REALLY???"  Nicole has the most LA DE DA attitude when crafting...But shes really the best sister. Okay my only sister but I love her.

 Cute snowmen - Nope no faces-lol. Lucky their wearing hats.

 Darling Candycanes!!! 

 Love her ornaments...

By the Grace of the Lord I think it looks pretty good considering I didn't have much of border to stitch. Had no clue what I was doing - I just went for it. I would ask Nicole "Do you like this fabric or this one? She would answer "Yes". She's so easy going. And she loved the pillow. Thank Goodness.
Today I sewed up 3 zipper pouches. 2 are for my sister to give away as gifts. I am making a bunch to have on hand for unexpected visitors during the Holidays. At least this way I will have something nice to give. Now I really need to get on stitching some ornaments that I hoped to get on the tree this year. Lots of charts to be stitched but stitching does take time. Well you know!  Have a great week.
With Love and my appreciation for you stopping by - Annette

New Pincushion & Christmas Planner 2012

Hello Bloggers! It's only 2 days away from Thanksgiving here in the US. Yesterdays mail brought me a surprise package. This beautiful PINK pincushion from Vickie (her blog is "A Stitcher's Story" can be found here). Vickie makes these adorable bottle cap pincushions and made this "Just for Me".
Thank you Thank you Vickie - I love it:) Isn't her stitched Roses gorgeous?

 There are so many roses all around and they are tiny...So very Pretty. And look at the pins she made.
Vickie you are so talented and a pro at making these. I tried my best to capture the beauty of the colors and stitches. I've seen Vickie's other pincushions she's made and let me tell you it is so much prettier in person than the pictures. But I tried to take good photos for you.

 My beautiful card that came with my new treasure. Love you Vickie:)

 

Have you been to Shabby Art Boutique's blog? The artist is Kerryanne and she is in Australia. I discovered her blog last year. I made this book as my Holiday Planner for 2011. I used some scrapbook papers and trims. Kerryanne offers a Free PDF of all the pages for the planner. And not only did she have this for 2011 - She now has Simply Christmas planner pages for 2012.

 I had bought a old book from a used book store and removed the insides. It became my Christmas planner.

 Here is the inside of my planner. I just took odds and ends, punched holes and stuck them in.

 This is the first page of the FREE PDF PAGES that Kerryanne has designed. Isn't it beautiful? This is great eye candy for me and I really use my planner. What I did was: printed on  8 1/2 x 11 regular computer paper. Trimmed around the pages and glued them in. You can use tape or I used a glue stick. And I only applied the glue in the 4 corners to adhere to my book. That way I can remove them for next year and replace them.

 This years pages that Kerryanne is offering are in color and themed "Victorian".

There are 8 pages total. They are very pretty. You can make your own planner. Kerryanne gives suggestions on what type of notebooks you can use. The link to Kerryanne's 2012 Christmas Planner is HERE  and be sure to look at her blog - It's Gorgeours.

Today was grocery shopping for the big dinner on Thursday. OH MY! The parking lot at the grocery store was full. I mean EVERY parking spot was taken - packed. Of course I got a front spot of the store:) And you know I had a blast. Even with all the people - it was fun. Everyone was in a great mood (except for some husbands that got dragged along). This Thanksgiving, well I really don't know what to expect...our 1st big holiday without my mom. But I am going to make this a great day, dinner and fun for all. I truly am Grateful and Thankful for sooooo much love. That's what means the most to me is the "LOVE".
God Bless you and enjoy your time with family and friends.
With Much Love and Appreciation - Annette
p.s. I forgot to mention I'm now stitching on Gingerbread House #2 - about 3/4ths of the way done:)
.

One Week Till Thanksgiving!

The Holidays are just about here. It's crazy and yet very exciting. I've been stitching away on Gingerbread Street by Sue Hillis Designs. Yesterday I had a scare...Can you see the very top left corner above the candy cane? Oh yes, I needed to move over my hoop and discovered the grey markings.. I couldn't believe it. This has never happened to me before. I think its from the hoop. This is the sparkly pink fabric.
So today I did my best to clean it. I first wet the fabric (only that corner) and took Dawn dish soap, deluded the soap then applied it to the fabric. Next I rinsed it, rolled it in a clean dry towel, then ironed dry. It looks much better but I can see some light markings left. My hoops have always been clean and I don't EVER allow any liquid or food near my fabrics or threads. So I went today to Michael's and bought myself a Q Snap Frame. I'll see how that works. I really do love my Susan Bates hoops. I've not ever had a problem in the past. Didn't get to stitch today but sure hope to this weekend.

 Participated in EMS Holiday Stash Exchange. This is my favorite exchange. No stitching projects needed. I couldn't but help stitch this little pincushion for Julia though. We got to chose if we wanted Christmas or non-Christmas Stash and EMS recommends a limit of $10. Julia chose Christmas. She liked Adia fabric and pastels. I found this chart of Jar Toppers that offers lots of small designs. They don't have to be stitched for Jar lids. They'd make great ornaments. So what I did was select one of the designs and bought Julia all the threads for that pattern (the Merry Christmas one). I mailed it on
Tuesday and she got it Wednesday. That was very fast. And she told me she loved everything...

 

35ct Linen (also the name of the color) by WDW

 

This is my book that I used for the Deer design. It was a great quick stitch.

I ordered this book from ABC Stitch Therapy. Remember when they had the on-line trunk show. I think that's what they called it. I looked and was so happy to see this book listed under Dinky Dyes. It's a great book. I have looked thru it and it really has great step by step illustrations. I know it will prove a great reference for me.

New Christmas stash.

I wish you a wonderful weekend. I will be stitching and planning our Thanksgiving Menu:)

Always with Love and my Appreciation - Annette

25 Days of Christmas & a Giveaway everyday!

Just wanted to share with you if you have not heard - Nancy of Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe is hosting 25 days of giveaways in December. If you have not had the pleasure of stitching with her beautiful flosses this would be a great opportunity for you to win some and try them out.
I have in the past ordered some of her flosses and they are beautiful and a pleasure to stitch with. So head on over to her blog and leave a comment to be entered. Good Luck.
love Annette

Happy Birthday Lee

The Victoria Sampler - "Where Stitchers Gather"

Threads: Rainbow Gallery Silks, The Thread Gatherer Silk, NPI silk, Gloriana Silk, & Belle Soie Silk

Weeke Dye Works, Sampler Threads

28ct Lambswool Linen

 Lee at Notes from the Mountain has been celebrating her Birthday. A very Happy Birthday to you Lee and many many more my friend.
This has been one of my secret projects that I could not share with you till now. I am happy to say My parcel to Lee has been dispatched & more importantly elegantly received by her and opened. As you have seen my other pouches in previous posts - those where practice for me leading up to making these pouches for Lee.

 Close up of some of the MANY different specialty stitches.

 Large zippered pouch made using Anna Griffin Fabrics. The rose garland on the bottom is a trim. The top border of Rhodes Hearts and Satin Stitches was very challenging for me. After much frogging and prayers - finally got it right (I think).

 Middle sized pouch also made with Anna Griffin Fabric.

 And a small pouch I made to coordinate with the others for Lee.

 Making these pouches were so much fun and it was all my pleasure to make these for Lee. 

The ribbon, trim and lace I hand stitched.

Sue Hillis Designs -  "Gingerbread Street"

A new WIP. I  started & worked on it this weekend  - "Gingerbread Street" by Sue Hillis Designs.
This is the pretty sparkly pink fabric that was specially made for this design. It has been slow stitching for me. The lollipops and candy require 2 strands of DMC and 1 strand of Filament Blending thread. Therefor it takes me more time to thread my needle and I'm careful when stitching not to have it knot on me. It is very pretty in person. I snapped this photo late this evening so I don't think I was able to capture its true beauty (I tried). I will share my progress of it in the future. Lots of back-stitching also. This is one of 4 gingerbread houses (aka Gingerbread Street). I am stitching them all in one row.
Well that's it for now. I wish you all a wonderful week. Happy stitching.
Always with Love and my Appreciation - Annette

Happy Halloween - Fall & Christmas Finishes

 BBD "Cast A Spell"

32ct Belfast Linen Natural

WDW - Jack-O-Lantern & DMC threads

Hello bloggers! Welcome to all my followers and to my new followers. We have had the most beautiful weather here in Northern California (Bay Area 69 degrees) - all sunshine. Hope all of my blogging friends are safe and warm. I pray for your safety.

After seeing everyone's wonderful Halloween Ornaments I wanted to share my one Halloween project I did with you. Last year I stitched this design from BBD. Now mind you I had no blog last year and had just started cross-stitching again. I choose to randomly place the designs from the booklet with intentions of adding more to it this year. Nope didn't get done. No idea how I am going to finish this. So to the pile to be done with others it goes for now:) 

 Fall SAL - By The Bay

32ct Belfast Linen hand dyed by me - Lt Grey

Used Rhodes stitches for the as suggested by Donna. 

All Finished.

 Someone had taken a photo of their Fall sal project from this view and I thought it showed the specialty stitches really well. So I tried taking a photo from the same angle.

Do you like my silk flowers? Picked them up from Dollar Tree store. The frame I got from our thrift store for 80cents and 35% off (store wide closing sale) that. Unfortunately our Hospice Thrift store is moving to another town. But I sure shopped & stocked up for frames for my cross stitch projects before they closed.

 

 Now to decide where to display? I love that I now have Two completed projects from

By the Bay and framed. So I was experimenting as to where to put it.

 This is where I ended up placing it for now.  I enjoy seeing it in the corner of the kitchen.

 2012 JCS Christmas Ornament Issue

Mosey N' Me - "Santa's Helper" pg 62

32ct Flax Natural Linen 

Threads: All the Gentle Arts Simply Shaker Sampler threads reccomended & WDW

This month I participated in an Holiday Ornament exchange thru Ellen Maurer-Stroh Cross Stitch Forum or as we refer to it as EMS. My partner Alexia has received it and now I can share with you. This design caught my eye from the first time I opened the magazine. When I first started stitching it (the threads & fabric I picked up while at Needle in a Haystack) I hadn't  realized that their were 2 different specialty stitches. Let alone that I had not done these stitches before.  

 Triple Tied cross stitch - Vertical band on sheep 

& 

Mosaic stitch - Horizontal band on sheep

One is called Triple Tied cross stitch and the other is Mosaic Stitch. In the back of the magazine their are Stitch Illustrations........Hump... I really had to study these and of course I Googled the stitches to learn more. Well make a long story short the illustrations provided in the magazine are very good. But still I needed more information or more pictures to go by. What I looked at was here at Arts and Designs.com. I had not seen this website before and I loved the glossary of stitches they provide.
In the Sheeps body I used Gentle Art Simply Wool - Tradewind (Needle In a Haystack didn't have the color Oatmeal). It's a beautiful thin wool for needlework. I was comfortable with these new stitches after I trained my eye to follow the pattern. It went really fast and it turned out to be FUN.

 First time I made a twisted cord of any sort. I know you are thinking "OH THAT'S EASY" - Not for me it was. This was challenging enough. I'm always impressed with how the rest of you make those gorgeous twisted cords.

And finally the finished ornament. Alexia said she likes it and plans to hang it on display in her new house. It was my pleasure Alexia:)) Sorry this photo was taken at night. I had finished sewing it and then wrapped it up and packaged it. Went out in the mail the next morning. If I didn't get it in the mail ASAP I was afraid I wouldn't want to part with it:))) I really love this ornament. I'm sure I will stitch this again for me - sometime....     Hope everyone has safe time tomorrow. I have stocked up on many bags of my favorite candy - Snickers, Reeses Cups, Kit Kats, Baby Ruth Bars, Twix & Milky Ways. I do not want my house Tee Peed the night after Halloween (just kidding). We got over 85 trick or treaters last year. I hope we get more this year.
Always with my Love and Appreciation - Annette

"By the Bay Needlearts" Fall Sal & New Stash

 Free Fall Sal,  By the Bay Needleart - click here for info.

32 ct Belgium Linen - Hand Dyed by Me:) lt grey

Threads: Variegated DMC 4130 for leaves & The Thread Gatherer Silk - Carmel Chocolate

rest of threads used were the recommended.

Since I enjoyed "By the Bay Needlearts" Summer SAL, I couldn't wait to begin to stitch Donna's Fall SAL. This is part 1. Parts 2 & 3 have come out but I'm a bit behind. I've been working on several projects and completed one (a birthday gift) today. Donna recommended a light grey for the fabric and I didn't have any grey in my stash. So I Googled "What colors to use to get light grey by Rit?" and found it on line, then did it.  I am pleased with how the fabric coloring turned out for this project.

I also decided to incorporate Rhodes stitches as Donna suggests in the pdf download of part 1.
I treated myself and finally went in person to "Needle in a Haystack" store in Alameda, about 50minutes from me where I live. I took my camera and I didn't take 1 photo - Yes it was in my handbag to. Oh my goodness I haven't stepped in a cross stitch store for at least 8 or 9 years.
I know right? I can't tell you how wonderful it was to see all the different lines of threads in person. Needle in a Haystack is a HUGE store and has tons of our type of pretties:)  The ladies who work there are all so very nice. Well with birthday money in hand here is some stash I brought home with me.

 I had seen this pattern "Gingerbread Street" by Sue Hillis Designs on line. Thought "Oh that's cute". But didn't order it (I have always ordered my supplies on line). Well.....the photo lets you know what happened.

  The fabrics are what caught my eye. They are so pretty (pink - yes I thought of you Vickie).
I tried to photograph the sparkles in the variegated pinks fabric. I will enjoy stitching this one.

 Now this book is by Monica Ferris (she writes A Needlework Mystery series) I had checked out the library. Included in the book (towards the end) is a cross stitch chart. I'm not going to explain about the design - because it would be a spoiler (there is no photo of the design to show you - till I stitch it). Now mind you, part of the pleasure going to a cross stitch store in person, is you get help and the ladies that work there and are so knowledgeable with colors and brands. The threads in the above photo are all silks. Yes even the gold ones on the spools (which I had never seen, brand Kreinik). Even though a few threads that I needed were not in stock (only 2) of the recommended for the chart - the lady suggested a different color but very close to what was listed - Perfect.

 Trebizond Silks: Gillyflower & Garnet

 These are Trebizond Silks. Have you been to Mary Corbert's blog - Needle N' Thread? This is were I learned of this silk. Had to pick up a few of them to tryout  & play with (some time in the near future).

I did walk in to the store with a list of supplies I needed. I was very good girl. And I did get all items expect a few. Mostly I picked up fabric and threads. It was sure Fantastic to get to go to Needle in a Haystack. And it feels good to get to share photos with you.
The weather here in the Bay Area has been warm (in the high 80's). Some days hot and we had to turn on our AC. Really weird weather this time of year here.  I wish you all a wonderful weekend - I will be stitching!
Always with Love and Appreciation - Annette